PARALLEL PROCESSING ARCHITECTURE FOR LICENSE METRICS SOFTWARE

• US 20150350361A1
• Filed: 06/02/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bektas, Umit, Januszek, Pawel, Kania, Piotr, Skibski, Konrad K.
• Application Number:
  US14/293,360
• Publication Number:
  US 20150350361A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2433 Query languages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/105 Arrangements for software license management or administration, e.g. for managing licenses at corporate level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/12 Protecting executable software
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/103 applying security measure for protecting copy right protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment, e.g. protection the software providers copyright G06F21/10; data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; secrecy systems or subscription systems H04N7/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing

Abstract

In one embodiment, in accordance with the present invention, a method for parallel collection of software license metrics comprises receiving, by one or more processors at a host computer, a software asset management request; interpreting, by one or more processors at the host computer, the software asset management request to generate queries; transmitting, by one or more processors at the host computer, the generated queries to designated network endpoints; receiving, by one or more processors at the host computer, partial results transmitted to the host computer by processing units which form a subset of the network endpoints; and merging, by one or more processors at the host computer, the partial results to form a final response to the received software asset management request.

Claims

1. A method for parallel collection of software license metrics, the method comprising:

receiving, by a designated network endpoint, a software asset management request, wherein the software asset management request is also received by a plurality of non-designated network endpoints;

identifying, by the designated network endpoint, first asset data that is relevant in responding to the software asset management request, wherein the first asset data pertains to the designated network endpoint and is stored on the designated network endpoint;

receiving, by the designated network endpoint, second asset data that is relevant in responding to the software asset management request, wherein the second asset data pertains to the plurality of non-designated network endpoints and is received from the plurality of non-designated network endpoints;

calculating, by the designated network endpoint, a result of the software asset management request from the identified first asset data and the received second asset data; and

sending, by the designated network endpoint, the calculated result to a host computer.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculated result is sent to the host computer for merging with additional results sent by one or more additional designated endpoints.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the first asset data and the second asset data are identified by their respective network endpoints according to a set of verification procedures, and wherein the result is calculated according to the set of verification procedures.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the verification procedures are received from the host.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the second asset data is received according to a globally defined hash function.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification of the first asset data includes scanning the designated network endpoint to collect data related to particular target software.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the second asset data relates to particular target software on the plurality of non-designated network endpoints.

2-5. -5. (canceled)

6. (canceled)

7-21. -21. (canceled)

28. A computer program product for parallel collection of software license metrics, the computer program product comprising:

one or more computer readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to receive, by a designated network endpoint, a software asset management request, wherein the software asset management request is also received by a plurality of non-designated network endpoints;

program instructions to identify, by the designated network endpoint, first asset data that is relevant in responding to the software asset management request, wherein the first asset data pertains to the designated network endpoint and is stored on the designated network endpoint;

program instructions to receive, by the designated network endpoint, second asset data that is relevant in responding to the software asset management request, wherein the second asset data pertains to the plurality of non-designated network endpoints and is received from the plurality of non-designated network endpoints;

program instructions to calculate, by the designated network endpoint, a result of the software asset management request from the identified first asset data and the received second asset data; and

program instructions to send, by the designated network endpoint, the calculated result to a host computer.

29. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the calculated result is sent to the host computer for merging with additional results sent by one or more additional designated endpoints.

30. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the first asset data and the second asset data are identified by their respective network endpoints according to a set of verification procedures, and wherein the result is calculated according to the set of verification procedures.

31. The computer program product of claim 30, wherein the verification procedures are received from the host.

32. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the second asset data is received according to a globally defined hash function.

33. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the identification of the first asset data includes scanning the designated network endpoint to collect data related to particular target software.

34. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the second asset data relates to particular target software on the plurality of non-designated network endpoints.

35. A computer system for parallel collection of software license metrics, the computer system comprising:

one or more computer processors;

one or more computer readable storage media;

program instructions stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors, the program instructions comprising;

program instructions to receive, by a designated network endpoint, a software asset management request, wherein the software asset management request is also received by a plurality of non-designated network endpoints;

program instructions to identify, by the designated network endpoint, first asset data that is relevant in responding to the software asset management request, wherein the first asset data pertains to the designated network endpoint and is stored on the designated network endpoint;

program instructions to receive, by the designated network endpoint, second asset data that is relevant in responding to the software asset management request, wherein the second asset data pertains to the plurality of non-designated network endpoints and is received from the plurality of non-designated network endpoints;

program instructions to calculate, by the designated network endpoint, a result of the software asset management request from the identified first asset data and the received second asset data; and

program instructions to send, by the designated network endpoint, the calculated result to a host computer.

36. The computer system of claim 35, wherein the calculated result is sent to the host computer for merging with additional results sent by one or more additional designated endpoints.

37. The computer system of claim 35, wherein the first asset data and the second asset data are identified by their respective network endpoints according to a set of verification procedures, and wherein the result is calculated according to the set of verification procedures.

38. The computer system of claim 37, wherein the verification procedures are received from the host.

39. The computer system of claim 35, wherein the second asset data is received according to a globally defined hash function.

40. The computer system of claim 35, wherein the identification of the first asset data includes scanning the designated network endpoint to collect data related to particular target software, and wherein the second asset data relates to particular target software on the plurality of non-designated network endpoints.